Following from Jo Nesbø's electrifying international best-sellers The Snowman and The Leopard, now comes Phantom, which plunges the brilliant, deeply troubled, now former police officer Harry Hole into a full-tilt investigation on which his own tenuous future will come to depend.

When Harry left Oslo again for Hong Kong—fleeing the traumas of life as a cop—he thought he was there for good. But then the unthinkable happened. The son of the woman he loved, lost, and still loves is arrested for murder: Oleg, the boy Harry helped raise but couldn't help deserting when he fled. Harry has come back to prove that Oleg is not a killer. Barred from rejoining the police force, he sets out on a solitary, increasingly dangerous investigation that takes him deep into the world of the most virulent drug to ever hit the streets of Oslo (and the careers of some of the city's highest officials), and into the maze of his own past, where he will find the wrenching truth that finally matters to Oleg, and to himself.

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Review:

Amazon Exclusive: An Essay by Jo Nesbø on Harry Hole

It is not easy to summarize the protagonist of the series in a few words, but here are some features of Harry’s personality that are important to me when I write about him: he’s the type of guy who is driven by his good side as well as his darker side. At times he believes in his role as law enforcer, at other times he doesn’t. And occasionally he is so gripped by his emotions that they overwhelm his basic belief in the principles of a state governed by law. He hunts down criminals with such an intense hatred and finds revenge so hard to resist that at times he could be mistaken for the antagonists he is fighting. But at the same time he can feel empathy for, perhaps even a kinship with, the lawbreaker. Harry Hole is a hero with pronounced weaknesses. All interesting heroes have an Achilles heel, and in Harry’s case, it is alcohol.

Harry feels something akin to what the serial killer feels, the same tension and excitement, when he approaches a victim and the same anti-climax after the killer is caught. It is Harry’s ambition to understand both love and evil. He is a passionate guy in all ways. And he is the type of man who has difficulties controlling his impulses. The fact that he cannot set limits permeates his drinking habits and his attitude to his job. He takes on cases and is swallowed up by them. It is the same with his relationships with women. I could have chosen to make Harry and Rakel live happily ever after and have children, but then we have a completely different person. I like the fact that he is in transit in his own life, as far as his emotions and his job are concerned. I'm often asked how much Harry and I have in common. I won't answer that in detail, but when you make a person a hero, as a writer you are bound to have at least a basic set of values, a goal, a need or a longing that you can relate to.

About the Author:

JO NESBØ is a musician, songwriter, economist, and author. He has won the Glass Key Award for best Nordic crime novel. His other Harry Hole novels include The Redbreast, Nemesis, The Devil's Star, The Snowman, and The Leopard. He lives in Oslo. Translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett.

Book Description Knopf, 2012. Book Condition: New. Brand New, Unread Copy in Perfect Condition. A+ Customer Service! Summary: "Intricate, breakneck plotting makes for an addictive page-turner in Phantom . . . Brings to mind Michael Connelly's tortured LAPD detective Harry Bosch." - Los Angeles Times "The Oslo depiction adds a contemporary heft to Phantom that expands Nesb's reach . . . Suggests more than a few parallels to the great television series 'The Wire'; perhaps it is one master's nod to another." - Boston Globe " Phantom will maintain Jo Nesb's unstoppable momentum." - The Independent (UK) "Easily the most troubling and heartfelt of this excellent series, Phantom is one of the finest suspense novels to come out of Scandinavia to date." - BookPage "Nesb's true subject is the deterioration of the social fabric that has made Oslo such a civilized place." - New York Times Book Review "A compulsive page-turner . . . [ Phantom ] is expertly plotted and structured, with all the requisite twists and turns to keep the reader guessing. The latter half of the book is also relentlessly paced, reading at times like a Scandinavian police version of the Jason Bourne series." - The Independent on Sunday (UK) "Far more than a procedural . . . Personal and topical and hip, as usual." - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette "Nesb has written a cunningly constructed thriller . . . running at Hollywood summer blockbuster speed." - Richmond Times-Dispatch "Superb on every level . . . Nesb begins with an emotionally gripping family drama but surrounds it with an elaborate, beautifully constructed plot involving [a] new drug and the ruthless man who rules its distribution. The subplots, plot twists (especially the last one), and the fully fleshed supporting characters-many of whom could drive their own novels-are all testament to Nesb's remarkable talent, but finally, it all comes back to Harry and the pain he endures in trying to carve out a separate peace from a world and a past that won't let him go." - Booklist (starred) "A first-class thriller . . . Contains several twists, some of which will make you gasp and at least one of which will make you cry . . . Phantom is Nesb's finest novel, a novel for grown-ups, which triumphantly proves, as Harry says, that 'humans are a perverted and damaged species and there is no cure, only relief.'" - Evening Standard (UK) "Deeply moving . . . This is Harry's most personal case." - Publishers Weekly (starred) "Norwegian crime fiction writer Nesb is one of the best . . . Oslo's gritty and violent drug world is brought to life through the characters. The fast-paced plots are twisted and riveting, and the two stories collide to reveal a shocking climax. Nesb is on par with the original Scandinavian duo Maj Sjwall and Per Wahl, authors of the Martin Beck series." - Library Journal "The internationally popular detective series by the Norwegian author builds to a blockbuster climax [in Phantom ] . . . Those hooked by [ The Snowman ] or earlier ones should make their way here as quickly as they can . . . Devastating for protagonist and reader alike." - Kirkus Reviews (starred) " Phantom is an astoundingly good novel. Nesb has done it again." - Trouw (Netherlands) "Another excellent example of why Nesb has such a firm grasp on the Nordic crime crown . . . Nesb's portrait of venality and corruption is bleakly angry, his peek beneath Oslo's gleaming faade disturbing; a fascination with addiction adds to his writing's unsettling intensity. But he doesn't let this overwhelm a tightly coiled plot." - Metro (UK) "Once again Nesb demonstrates that he is a crime writer of absolute world class . . . You will understand what I mean when you read Phantom. And please do, this is a masterpiece of the genre. Jo Nesb just gets better and better." - Vsterbottens Folkblad (Sweden) "Perhaps it was unrealistic to expect Nesb to reach the dizzying heights of his two previous books, The Snowman and The Leopard . How wrong I was. Phantom is arguably a much better book than any previous instalme. Bookseller Inventory # ABE_book_new_0307960471